Rachel Wolf

1 October 2019
Ice Age
Reading Report

Miller et al. 2014: Clovis Across the Continent

They describe the range of variation in Clovis sites to better define Clovis technology in North
America. Sites studied include Blackwater Draw, New Mexico (Great Plains) and a group of
mammoth kill sites in the American Southwest like Murray Springs which fall within ~13.4k-
12.7k cal yr BP.
Waters 2019: Late Pleistocene exploration and settlement of the Americas by modern
humans
Addressed the arrival timing of humans in the Americas, routes taken, homeland of origin, and
their methods of exploration and settlement in the diverse environment. Studies of human
settlement in the Americas increased with the advent of modern technology like radiocarbon
dating and genetics. Clovis points were able to be dated via radiocarbon dating methods, and
through genetics, scientists were able to reconstruct prehistoric genomes, leading to a better
understanding of late Pleistocene human origins. Waters predicts that further advances in
genetics, combined with other records like archaeological or oral, will lead to a better
understanding of the past.
Meltzer Chapter 7: What do you do when no one’s been there before?
In this chapter, Meltzer thinks like the first Americans when they came in contact with their new
environment. The new experiences of the Clovis people when coming to America gives insight
into human adaptation. He questions why they moved from Asia to America. There are two
broad categories to why people migrate: they’re pushed out by negative factors or attracted by
positive ones and pulled into the new area.